Ubi Nihil Vales, Ibi Nihil Velis

I received a very short and uninformative e-mail asking me if I was interested in reviewing the new Total Fucking Destruction split with Skat Injector. I had never heard of the latter of the two, and I’ve never really given the former of ‘em all that much attention, but I figured why the hell not. A couple of weeks later a promo arrived in the mail.

Starting out with four tracks by Total Fucking Destruction, a band I assume most grindheads are familiar with. They’ve never really thrilled me in the past, playing a sort of wacky type of grindcore I’m not too fond of. I’ve most certainly encountered the band several times since they’ve released splits with some acts I like, and have been a part of Bones Brigade Records’ roster; a label that’s released a whole bunch of awesome records. But for some reason these guys never really stuck, and I’ve always brushed them off as not being too damn serious with their music. Perhaps I’m wrong, perhaps they’re extremely serious and they’ve just got a funny way of showing it (what do I know?).

Total Fucking Destruction’s songs are unfortunately recorded live, and not with the chunkiest and greatest sound quality either. I don’t feel the production does the music any justice, and the guitar sounds very thin, and I don’t think I can even hear the bass at all. That’s bloody unfortunate, ‘cause someone like me, not a previous fan, won’t be given the greatest chance to become one. Musically it’s all-out wacky grind, winding up somewhere in the regions of powerviolence, fastcore, old school grindcore and rock, and for some reason feels like a mixture of Anal Cunt and Macabre, which truly doesn’t make much sense, but that’s still the feeling I get from it. It’s jazzy drumming, experimental song-structures, unusual riffing, weird-ass vocals and pretty much anything else you can imagine from my previous description. At times the vocals are clean, at times just screechy screaming with a sudden onset of growl towards the end of Youth apocalypse right now, and at times it feels like somewhat classic hardcore vocals. The tempo actually rarely reaches the realms of blasting, and is most of the time set in a mid-tempo jazz pace, with the riffing throwing you a sweet-ass guitar line in Monster earth megawar, just as it offers some screechy, experimental moments. This truly isn’t for the faint-hearted, and it isn’t really for me (at least not as a beginner), but I can definitely see why people enjoy their noise; it’s catchy, weird-as-hell and unlike pretty much anything else in the grindcore scene.

I didn’t really know what to expect from Skat Injector, knowing absolutely nothing about the constellation. Upon looking them up I discovered they hail from London, and I also realized they were part of the 100 splatter fetish compilation. I’ve heard that one, but amongst the half-arsed noisy and burly grind on the comp I suppose they just got lost in the crowd. But as Anal suicide began I thought I just had to look up their previous releases, ‘cause this is some rad and fucked up stuff.

Very cyber-esque, actually to a point where I normally probably wouldn’t enjoy it at all, but they deliver it with such a conviction it’s impossible not to like it. A strange and spaced-out keyboard line is present throughout the entire first song, and while I would’ve thought it to be annoying and bothering it feels utterly fitting for the task of delivering screwy noise. The programmed drums deliver both blasting and slower unorthodox beats, and the vocals are pretty much straight-forward high pitched squealing screams. It’s bloody cool and interesting, and while I thought myself to have got a hold on Skat Injector’s sound they throw me off balance with Sworn to sodomy. The keyboard’s still present, but this time delivering a spacy and old school black metal melody, and as the song takes off I realize this is my first time encountering cyberblackgrind. It sounds like Libido Airbag took on the task of playing Burzum and Mayhem inspired grindcore, which sounds surprisingly fucking killer. The drums are awesome in all of its blasting goodness and weird hammering, the riffing takes the backseat and lets the keys and vocals do the talking. Vocally it sounds harsher and more evil than most established black metal vocalists, and it feels like he’s gurgling the guts of small Christian children whilst screaming blasphemy, commanding the world to come to an end. It is just so freakishly awesome. And while I really do enjoy these two songs it is after all just two songs, which is just too little (and too damn diverse in between) to really get the hang of what they’re all about. But I’ll definitely look them up, ‘cause this is just too sweet to be ignored.

Originally written for My Last Chapter